It’s not the most warming of headlines if you reside in Sydney Australia (current property prices and interest rates aren’t the makings of good chats over a Rosé) but it’s an astonishing icebreaker if you ever need one: Ed Sheeran bought four houses all next to each other in the countryside town of Suffolk, England.

Dubbed by neighbours as “Sheeranville”, the 26-year-old Perfect singer – who proposed to his sweetheart Cherry Seaborn just last week – spent a prominent chunk of his AUD $70-million-dollar fortune and will reportedly add a man cave, music room and cinema beneath the grounds of his main farmhouse that he bought a while ago (the one with the treehouse and barn which he converted into a pub). Both Sheeran and Seaborn grew up and went to school in Suffolk.

“Ed is a super guy and really friendly. He is just a down to earth Suffolk boy at heart – so who can blame him for wanting to settle down here? It is a lovely part of the world”, one resident told The Daily Mail. “He has bought all the properties next door. I guess it means that there is nobody to complain if he plays his music too loudly.”